RL Fic Exchange: Coffee and Mistletoe
by Starlight841
Summary: A quote in an email makes Rory come to understand why her relationship works and why her mother’s doesn’t. Set after I’d Rather Be in Philadelphia. Rogan.


Hey guys! Here is my piece for the exchange based on the prompt from Jill-Renay. The prompt is at the bottom of the page for those of you who want to see it. Thanks to my lovely beta Aminalluv!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

**Summary: **Rory reflects on why her relationship works and why Lorelei's doesn't. Set after I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia. Rogan.

**Coffee and Mistletoe **

She probably should have crushed the peppermint candies before she put them in her coffee. Chances are they would have melted faster that way. By the time they all blended together with the coffee it probably wouldn't be hot enough anymore. Rory preferred her coffee to be very, very hot, that way she was able to savor it longer. The more tolerable it was to drink the faster she would drink it. Of course it wasn't her fault if her holiday candy cane coffee wasn't perfect. It was Westins' fault! They knew she was going to be gone for Christmas but they just didn't care! So she and her mother had to resort to other means.

"This coffee sucks!" Rory exclaimed, slamming the mug down on the kitchen counter.

"I told you we could have stopped at Starbucks on the way here from the hospital, Ace," Logan said. Rory looked at her boyfriend like she was contemplating chopping his head right off.

"I've told you a _million_ times, Logan, Starbuck's peppermint mochas are _too _chocolately. You can hardly taste the coffee _and _they are like a billion calories."

Logan rolled his eyes. "And you have always worried about things like that before."

Rory sighed. "You just don't understand. Westins' holiday candy cane coffee is _perfect. _There is the perfect amount of chocolate and peppermint it's not overpowering, you can still taste the coffee, it isn't too creamy. It is just perfect in everyway. You would understand if you had ever had it."

"I'm sure I would," Logan said, walking over to Rory and wrapping his arms around her. The real problem here wasn't the coffee, and he had known that from the moment she had insisted upon trying to make her own recipe. The problem was the fact that her grandfather was lying in a hospital bed and her mother was upstairs in her room crying over her ass of a husband. To say Logan wasn't happy with Christopher at the moment was an understatement.

He liked Christopher enough. He was very decent to Logan during a time when he thought pretty much all of Rory's family hated him more than anyone on the planet. Yet, he never would have expected to see him completely disregard the fact that his wife's father was in the hospital just because they had gotten into a fight the night before. He was starting to see the side of Chris that Rory always told him about yet he had never seen before and he couldn't really imagine coming from the guy he knew.

He hadn't told anyone, he hadn't even told Rory because to be completely honest he wasn't sure if she even remembered telling _him, _but a couple nights after she found out they had gotten married she had had a little too much to drink and let it slip to him that she had lied to her mother when she said the only thing that bothered her was that she wasn't there for her wedding.

She was bothered that Lorelai had married Christopher. She had gotten too used to the idea of having Luke as a stepfather. She was bothered that her mother seemed to be over Luke already, but she was still grieving the loss of someone very important in her life. And as much as she wished he did, her father didn't fit that role. It just wasn't right. Her parents had been separate entities in her mind for so long that the thought of them together was just foreign and the dreams that she had about them being together when she was younger unfortunately did not match up with the reality of the situation.

So that was why, at this moment, Logan understood that Rory wasn't upset about the coffee. She was grasping at straws, trying to regain the Christmases that she remembered. Even though it was already the middle of January, Christmas was over, and they had a wonderful time in London together, the moment that her grandfather had fallen in that classroom she had realized that things were changing way too fast, and she wasn't going to let this winter slip by without some reminder of the Christmases of her youth. And at the moment he was more than happy to play along.

"Why don't we go out to Westins right now and I tell them that if they don't give you a glass of holiday candy cane coffee I will soundly kick their asses, buy their establishment, and force them to serve holiday candy cane coffee all year round, _while _wearing embarrassing elf suits?"

Rory smiled. "That would be wonderful, but I look like a Yale hobo right now. I don't want to leave the house." She gestured to her full sweat pants regalia. She was dressed in a baggy pair of blue sweat pants with a gray Yale logo, and Logan's gray, Yale hoodie that was about three sizes too big for her. Her hair was a mess and she had just finished washing all the make-up off her face.

Logan smiled and pulled her into hug. "I think you look beautiful," he said, kissing her on the forehead.

"Aw," Rory said, placing a hand on his cheek. "You're so cheesy." She patted him on the face and broke out of his hold. She walked into her room where she had placed all of her things the moment they had arrived.

"I'm going to check my email," she said walking out of her room with her laptop, past the kitchen and settling herself on the sofa in the living room. Logan followed, plopping down on the couch and turning on the television.

He was flipping through the channels, with one eye on his girlfriend as she typed and clicked away on her laptop. Rory had the cutest habit of opening her mouth ever so slightly when she read through anything on the computer and she would always mouth the words to whatever it is she was reading. She never did this when she read a book or the newspaper, only the computer. Logan found it adorable.

"Rosemary just sent me an email with a bunch of cheesetasitc, lovey quotes. Oh! There is also a picture of two otters holding hands."

Logan nodded. "Rosemary is a fan of the forward, forward, forward," he said, giving up on the television and turning his complete attention to Rory. "Hit me with some cheese."

Rory laughed and straightened up on the couch, pulling her computer closer into her lap, and tucking her feet underneath her. "Okay..." she said skimming through the list of quotes to find one that Logan would get a kick out of. "Here we go. 'Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.'"

"Keats," Logan said matter-of-factly.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Yes I know. Is this a game now? Are you going to try to guess who said it every time I read one of these to you?"

"Yes," Logan answered with a smirk. "Anyway, I don't think that really describes us."

"Oh, why not?" Rory asked.

"Because I don't think we've ever agreed on anything, therefore we have never had a singular thought."

Rory rolled her eyes. "'A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.'"

"Now that one _really _doesn't describe us. I've tried to stop you from talking by doing a lot more than kissing you and nothing ever works."

Rory threw a pillow at him and he laughed as he caught it and placed it over his lap. "Well I bet your _perfect _self doesn't know who said it!"

"Sylvia Plath," Logan said with a smirk. Rory was not amused.

"Hah. Hah," Rory drolled sarcastically. "Ingrid Bergman. 'Love is the flower. You've got to let it grow.'"

"John Lennon," Logan answered. "And if that is the case then I'm screwed because you've killed every single one of my plants while I was gone."

"I don't think its supposed to be literal, jerk."

"That's not a very nice thing to say, Ace."

"Alright, smarty, this one you won't guess," Rory said. Logan quirked his eyebrows and listened closely. "Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you' re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have YOU... The one who turns to his friends and says, that's her..."

Logan scoffed. "That doesn't describe me either. I am much too manly for such things."

Rory smiled and put her computer on the coffee table. "I think it's perfect."

"How so?" Logan asked, as she climbed into his lap.

"You have done _all _those things."

"Have I?"

"Yes," Rory answered. "Just tonight you called me beautiful and wanted to take me to Westins in my sweatpants. When I was mad at you that time after I found out about the bridesmaids and I came here I was hanging up and ignoring you all day but you kept calling me."

"Well I thought you might be dead or something," Logan explained.

"When you came back from London we lied under the stars together and you didn't try _anything _until we got back inside. I even dozed off up there and when I woke up I was angry that you let me and you said that you liked to watch me sleep."

"You said that was creepy," Logan said with a laugh.

"_Sweet_ creepy," Rory explained.

"Ah, okay, that's not confusing at all."

"You kiss my forehead all the time. You hold my hand in front of Colin and Finn all the time."

"Well, if I don't remind them you're taken they may start to think they can steal you away," Logan explained.

"You always tell me how lucky you are to have me. You don't even notice when I'm not wearing make-up."

"That's because you're beautiful without it," Logan said, kissing her forehead.

"See!" Rory said. "Two things! Right there! Well…the last thing I don't know if you have ever done."

"Do you want me to have done it?" Logan asked.

Rory bit her lip. "I wouldn't mind being _her._"

Logan decided at that moment that words were indeed superfluous and captured Rory's lips in his. Rory smiled into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck just as her mother started clomping down the stairs.

"Hey no funny business on the couch. That's what God made rooms for," she teased. Rory pulled apart from Logan, not wanting to rub her functional relationship in her mother's face. Logan just blushed and looked at the couch cushion.

"Have you heard from Dad?" Rory asked. Lorelai took a deep breath and shook her head.

"I think he was pretty shook up about seeing Luke there. I don't plan to hear from him for a while."

"Right," Rory said softly. "Well if-"

She was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing. She looked at her mother in confusion and craned her neck to see if she could get a glimpse of who it might be out of the window. She couldn't see a face, but the flannel shirt and the baseball cap told her all she needed to know.

"It's Luke," Rory said. Lorelai's expression went blank and she nodded before heading to the door. "Are you going to answer it?" Rory asked, flabbergasted.

"Well, Rory, it's cold outside. I can't just let him have walked all the way out here and frozen for nothing."

"What if Dad comes home?" Rory asked.

Lorelai closed her eyes. "Rory, I love that you have so much faith in your father but I've known him longer than you, I've been through more with him. So please believe me when I say he is_ not _coming home tonight."

"Okay…" Rory said weakly. Lorelai walked out and Rory looked to Logan with concern. He pulled her closer as she bit her fingernails and stared out the window to see what little she could of her mother and her ex-fiancé.

"You know there was some mistletoe your mom forgot about still hanging out there," Logan said. "Maybe they will kiss, make up, and this whole entire mess will go away."

Rory rolled her eyes. "You mean this whole entire mess will get even worse."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"She deserves better," Rory said. "She deserves someone who will marry her _and _be there for her when her Dad is in the hospital regardless of their situation at the moment. She deserves someone like that quote. It's not fair that I have the quote guy and she doesn't!" Rory smiled sadly. "She almost married this guy once."

"Yeah?" Logan asked.

Rory nodded. "His name was Max. He was my high-school English teacher. He was perfect in every way. He really loved her. He was never scared off by a fight. He would have taken care of her and been every thing on that stupid quote. But…she just didn't love him enough."

"Did you want her to marry him?" Logan asked.

"I did at the time," she answered. "I'm not saying that I think she made a mistake. She didn't love him enough. Marrying him would have been a mistake. I just… I don't understand why the only two guys she's ever really loved are the only two guys that have ever had the ability to hurt her. I don't understand why she is incapable of loving someone safe, someone who is _good _for her."

Logan thought for a moment. "The people we love the most are always the one's who hurt us the most. What makes someone safe isn't the fact that they are incapable of hurting another human being. It's that they can't hurt you. You don't care about them enough to be hurt. Two years ago if you had chosen Marty over me, you probably would have never gone through all the pain that I put you through, but would you really love him? And does that really mean he's a _safe_ guy? He hurt Lucy, after all. Besides we rarely love what's good for us. Lord knows I'm not good for you."

"That's not true," Rory said.

"You're good for me. But you, my dear, are the exception," Logan said.

Rory offered a small smile. "You're good for me. If for no other reason than you make me happy. Besides the email says! You can't ignore that."

Logan laughed. "Well if the email says I'm good for you, I guess I am. That certainly can't be wrong."

Rory was about to retort when the front door opened again. Her mother came in, shivering slightly with her robe wrapped tightly around herself. She could see the remnants of red in her eyes that Rory highly doubted was a result of the cold.

"Um…" Lorelai said as she shuffled her feet on the ground. "I'm going to go ahead and go to sleep. You guys can stay here or you could just go on home if you want to. I wouldn't mind."

"I think we'll stay here for the night. It's pretty late," Logan answered. Lorelai nodded.

"Okay. Well, Rory knows where to find the extra blankets. It's supposed to get pretty cold tonight so…right. Well, I guess I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Night, Mom," Rory whispered as Lorelai climbed up the stairs to her empty bedroom. "I guess that mistletoe didn't do the trick after all."

"Guess not," Logan said. "Come here." He climbed off the couch and pulled Rory up with him.

"Logan…." She whined as he dragged her out onto the porch. When they stepped outside Rory immediately crossed her arms over her chest to keep warm. It was still snowing, as it had been all evening, but under the circumstances Rory couldn't say that it brought her the same amount of joy that it usually did.

"We don't want to anger the mistletoe gods. Someone has to kiss under here."

"I don't think that's how the rules work, Logan," Rory said, teeth chattering.

"Well, then I guess I just wanted an excuse to take you outside and kiss you in the snow." He did, rubbing his hands up and down her arms to generate a bit more heat.

Rory smiled into the kiss, momentarily forgetting the cold and focusing on Logan. When she stopped kissing him she hugged him even tighter and rested her head on his shoulder, tilting her eyes to look at the snow falling in the front yard. For this moment at least, she wasn't going to let her mother's unhappiness get in the way of hers.

**The End **

* * *

**Prompt: **"Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you' re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have YOU... The one who turns to his friends and says, thats her..."

That quote + mistletoe. I have this thing with mistletoe. No sickness, no death, just a good sexy, sweet fanfic. And no, it doesn't have to be during Christmas. But absolutely no Colin.


End file.
